President Museveni gives tips on geopolitics to senior military officers from the region

Jinja, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President Yoweri Museveni last week interacted with senior military officers from different African countries at the Senior Command and Staff College, Kimaka, in Jinja.

The 52 military officers are from Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Malawi.

Museveni entertained 10 questions from the officers, with each one of them taking to the podium to ask the president, who often took detailed notes.

Their questions ranged from geopolitical notions to the economy and global security, among others.

Whereas Museveni was previously offered lectures to senior staff officers in the form of academic papers, he chose to evolve into an interactive style. He said that, in doing so, officers are accorded time to ask questions of interest.

This, he says, enables him to address the functions of the officers as they head out to conclude a one-year-long staff officers’ course.

The session started with a question from Maj. Anastasia Loho from the Kenya Defence Forces, who inquired about the government’s readiness to handle Gen Z uprisings in case they escalate to other parts of East Africa, just like it was with the Arab Spring.

Loho inquired about whether there were lessons learned to address this challenge.

In his response, Museveni stressed the need for economic integration that will pave a clear pathway for both wealth and job creation. He noted that this integration would provide a huge market for processed goods within the East African region and the entire continent at large, thereby keeping the young people engaged in productivity.

Museveni asserted that he would rather youths demonstrate to rally African leaders on the importance of integrating to foster joint economic outcomes across East Africa.

He insisted that, without economic integration, youths will continue engaging in Gen Z-like protests long after leaders in East Africa are gone because their problems are not being addressed.

The second question was raised by Maj. Matthew Elliott from the South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF), who inquired how Africa would fairly thrive through the military might competition and reign powerful in this world.

Museveni raised the need for combining strengths with each other on the continent. Citing the example of Israel, Museveni says that the country has managed to sail through different storms and has strongly outlived the test of time in the Middle East area due to support from the United States of America.

The third question was raised by Maj. Allen Atuhaire of the Special Forces Command (SFC), who inquired why Africa is yet to be fully developed despite being rich in unexploited mineral wealth.

Museveni raised the need for minerals to be processed within the hosting countries rather than exporting them in raw material form. This, he says, will create more wealth and jobs for the people to robustly grow the economy as a whole, hence contributing to the desirable development of Africa.

He also raised the need for economic integration as a key driver for creating collective markets for their goods and services.

Museveni noted that the USA managed to attain the level of superpower status due to both political and economic unification, whereas South America, which is richer in minerals, still lags due to market disintegration because countries exist as smaller republics rather than joint blocks.

UPDF’s Maj. Sam Emoit was concerned about the dwindling funding for peace support operations from the European Union, among other key partners who have since shifted their focus to the Ukraine-Russia war, Israel-Palestine, among others. On this, Museveni noted that UPDF is currently executing peacekeeping missions in South Sudan and did the same previously in the Democratic Republic of Congo without foreign support.

He says that UPDF can operate in Somalia without any foreign funding; however, what he termed as ideological wars have kept the country ravaged in instability.

Museveni notes that Al-Shabaab is a weak group, which was disempowered out of Mogadishu and left to creep into the neighbouring towns, but it has failed to regroup into a formidable force.

Col. Arthur Mutebi talked about the best ways of solving the politics of interests and identity, which seem to be influencing conflicts across the world.

Still leveraging the example of Somalia, Museveni noted that, just like they were able to build UPDF into a formidable force, their teams were committed to replicating the same in the Somali army, only to be let down by religion, cultural and tribal inclinations.

Dr. Col. John Musiiba, who requested that the President explain the state of the country’s health security.

Museveni said that the country was already upfront with vaccine development through steering public-private partnerships; however, efforts to finance the military-led science research efforts are underway.

He says that this is geared towards ensuring a science-driven military, which is sustainably equipped to boost the economy.

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